vampirewax

i found a place not too far from my house that me and some friends are planning on getting our bikes powder coated at. can my c/f fork be powdercoated or will it melt when they put it in the oven?

dirtyphotons

what finish is on the fork now? i don't think you want to paint over the current clearcoat, and sandblasting carbon sounds like bad news.

dutret

also the heating can't be good.

LóFarkas

Sounds like the worst idea ever.
For a start, powder is kept on with some electromagnetic wizard trick, so I'm pretty sure it wouldn't stay on CF. It needs a conductor. And then comes the oven...

Shiznaz

You cannot powder coat carbon fiber. Don't try it.

Cynikal 

I'm just waiting for the slew of comments on this one.

OP, Powder coating involves magnetically charging the item and the paint is positively attracted to it. Then baked on. CF cannot be charged. You can paint it but not powder coat and I sure as h3ll wouldn't sandblast it.

Edit:I guess I'm a slow typer

Aeroplane

K to the R to the Ylon.

taken67

OP I like your avatar. Don't paint your fork, leave it all futuristic and shiny like.

biffstephens

To powder coat something you have to negatively charge the piece that is being coated and the powder is the positively charged so when it comes out of the gun it sticks to the piece. CF can not be charged so you can't do it...you'll have to get it painted...just go with a contrasting color and keep it matte and it should still look good....

Oh I might be off on what charges go to what but either way they have to be opposite...I am sure there is someone here that knows more about powder coating than me....

dirtyphotons

typically i think the paint is negatively charged and the metal is grounded. carbon componentry's laminated, so i don't think it could be grounded effectively.

that and baking it would probably be bad.

edit: of course, this is all hypothetical. i agree, you shouldn't try it.

sfcrossrider

No, no, no. VERY bad idea.

SingleSpeeDemon

I swear...there was a guy on FGG.com that had this done. He said the powdercoater put on a heat suit and wnt into the oven with the fork and dusted it as it fused. Maybe I'm on crack, though.

wagathon

Same way you'd paint a plastic bumper on a car is my guess. All Treks are painted and it seems as good a job as you'd ever hope to see--even including the slight metalflake look--but do not know about heating--it's probably just a good acrylic paint that is applied under controlled conditions, e.g., 75-80 degrees. I've never had a worse powder coat paint job (from the factory) than was on my old Y2K Lemond Zurich, whereas the paint on '01 BA is like iron.

Aeroplane

Paint != Powdercoat. Therein lies the rub.

lildave

dooods: https://velospace.org/node/1104

SingleSpeeDemon

that's the one I meant

Shiznaz

Somehow it still seems like a bad idea to get a guy to go into an oven with a suit on for you just so your carbon fork can match your frame...

operator

Try it and lets see what happens!

queerpunk

does duct-taping oven mitts all over me count as a heat suit?

Briareos

I asked this question a while ago in the mech forum, and there are ways to do this it seems. May not involve powdercoating though.

https://www.bikeforums.net/bicycle-mechanics/240015-painting-carbon-parts.html

visitordesign

"the man in the oven... pay him no mind. he's just the painter!"

Shiznaz

I don't get it yet I am still offended.

Briareos

Iran's president claims the Holocaust was "not as bad as people say", hence the caption. At first I thought it was humorous in a morbid way, but it really isn't all that funny. Now had he said "don't mind him, he's a drummer" I would laugh.

Dead Roman

You can powder coat carbon if you know of a company that uses UV reactive paints.

baxtefer

methinks your keyboard is broken